Mission (not so) Impossible: Developing a Mission Mindset

With government agencies becoming increasingly complex, they often require a large staff of government employees and sometimes contractors to achieve their goals. While focusing on the daily tasks, it can be easy to lose touch with the agency’s overarching mission. The mission of an agency defines priority objectives, short-term and long-term goals, and the precise context of the operation.

Developing a mission mindset is critical to keeping an organization’s mission in focus, as it is the foundation for understanding your office and agency’s goals. A mission mindset drives delivery from mission statement to task completion, which allows the individual to understand how their direct assignments contribute to realizing the mission.

The mission mindset starts with leadership. If the leaders do not connect the mission to the work of the employees, they lose an opportunity to inspire their workforce.

To develop this mission mindset and make it a part of the culture, large agencies can use these principles to keep their overall mission in perspective and clearly communicate with their workforce and stakeholders:

• Understand the Mission – The most important first step is researching the mission itself. Better understanding the mission allows the individual to see themselves as included. If you can see yourself inside of the mission, that aids tremendously in retaining that mission-focused mindset because you understand your contribution

• Define and Understand Priority Stakeholders – No mission operates in a silo. It often depends on others. How does your work fit into the organizational flow of the agency? Where does it require collaboration with other agencies? Additionally, identifying your relevant internal and external stakeholders, both inside and outside your agency, helps contextualize the work. Help the workforce build its stakeholder focus, as engaged stakeholders help improve mission success

• Keep a Pulse and Communicate Major Challenges and Priorities – Consider the major priorities and key objectives for your organization. Communicate these priorities to the workforce. Be honest about the challenges and the steps you are taking to address them. Let the workforce know how they can help

• Identify Mission Opportunities – Along with challenges and priorities, also consider the opportunities. Focus on opportunities where your organization, program, or team can directly impact the mission and methods for exploiting the opportunities. While it is often hard to step above the day-to-day and urgent priorities, taking a longer term look at opportunities and having your workforce do the same can result in significant new initiatives or innovations

• Measure Mission Results – Finally, consider what mission outcomes look like and how to measure them. Look at aspects of these mission priorities that are quantifiable and review how you capture and share data. Where possible, share the data to inspire the workforce or inform the stakeholders. Let it help you prioritize initiatives of future strategic objectives

By helping your workforce develop a mission mindset, a government agency better articulates how the direct assignments of their workforce, whether employees or contractors, contribute to realizing the mission. This also facilitates a depth of understanding on the context of the mission, priorities, challenges, opportunities, and methods of measuring results. Stay mission focused to achieve measurable outcomes.